A CITY gangster was questioned by detectives after a shooting which saw a children’s football match abandoned.

A CITY gangster was questioned by detectives after a shooting which saw a children’s football match abandoned.

James “Pancake” Taylor, 30, from Kirkdale, was arrested as he flew back from Spain into Liverpool’s John Lennon airport early yesterday afternoon.

Detectives from the Matrix team met him at JLA to arrest him on suspicion of affray.

He was taken to a station in Merseyside where he was being questioned over the shooting at the William Collins playing fields, in Vauxhall, on Sunday morning.

At the moment there is nothing to suggest he was the gunman police are looking for.

An Under-12s match was taking place on the pitches when shots rang out just before 12pm.

The game, which was nearing half-time, was abandoned because the children – some as young as nine – were too frightened and upset to continue.

There were around 28 children on the playing field when the shots were fired.

It is understood it followed an incident in the changing rooms, on the Commercial Road side of the fields, which involved a Samurai sword being brandished.

The shooting happened minutes after several adult Sunday league players were threatened with the sword.

Police are also looking into reports of a confrontation on the Scargreen Avenue playing fields, in Norris Green, which allegedly saw two rival gangsters pull guns on each other the previous Sunday after another football match.

The incident was not reported to police.

Detectives are concerned organised criminals, many of whom play for Saturday and Sunday teams, are trying to settle disputes with innocent people around.

A match in Speke in November last year was abandoned after just 15 minutes when two gangs clashed on the sidelines and four shots were fired.

A Merseyside police spokeswoman said: “We arrested a 30-year-old man from Kirkdale on suspicion of affray following an incident at the William Collins playing fields on Sunday February 28.